Imperial Tea Garden

Third steeping.

It has turned very vegetal and puts one in mind of fresh mown grass -but in an oddly pleasant way. So far I’ve yet to find anything distinctly non-pleasing about this tea; each flavor that comes out is enjoyable.

I’m not sure I can stretch this to another steeping, but will give it a try.

Second steeping at 4 minutes is very vegetal. As it cools a touch more of the sweetness comes out, but it’s much overwhelmed by the green taste. It remains very pleasant.

I put 13 in my 12oz steeper cup.

The color is very clear, but with a cream hue.

The scent is sweet with a strong berry tone.

The taste is very lightly sweet with a hint of berry through the nose area, with a green and hay-like roundness in the mouth and back of throat. It has a medium and light finish.

This is my second white tea, after a Drum Mt. White; my spouse bought me a sample of each of Imperial Garden’s whites. I wasn’t quite sure about whites after the first one, but curious to try more. This makes me glad I tried more. It’s just lovely.

I look forward to fiddling with steep times and such; it’s a very pleasing tea… you could scarf it down if it wasn’t just so good you want to sip it.

Enjoying the last that I have on hand of this tea. I do love a good Formosa Oolong! This one has nice roasted notes to it that imparts a honey-esque sweetness.

A very pleasant Oolong!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea!

This is a delicious Formosa Oolong. It has a very nice toasted flavor and delightful peachy notes. Smooth. Not much mouthfeel to this one, and a light touch of citrus flavor at the tail.

Backlog: I finished up the last that I had in my stash of this one… and am raising the numeric rating because it was so awesome. I will miss this one!

Here is my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/02/07/100-monkeys-white-tea-from-imperial-tea-garden/

I brewed some of this to enjoy with Chinese take-out lunch – yum!

Sweet yet bitter, this tea is truly a unique white tea.

I really like this tea. It has so many interesting layers of flavor. There is a savory bitterness that cuts through some of the sweetness. Enchanting floral notes.

delightful!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

The flavor is light. There are undertones of sweet and bitter to it. I’m not finding the bitter to be an unpleasant bitter though, it adds dimension to the cup. A very interesting cup.

Oh wow! This is probably the best white tea that I’ve ever had! It’s amazing!

Sweet with floral sharpness that comes off with just a little bitter bite. It amazes me how much this white tea fills the palate with it’s complex flavors.

Delightful. So good. I want more.

PS: Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea!

This is a very lovely black tea. There are notes of smoke (but I like it!) and an earthy quality. Neither of these two attributes are off-putting to me though. It has a very deep, almost Assam-like quality to this tea – malty and somewhat chewy. Very nice!

I am finding the roasted taste of this tea to be extremely comforting this afternoon. Sweet and nutty, with a pleasant vegetative note and a hint of fruit in the background.

Very lovely!

This is my first experience with a tea from Imperial Tea Garden, and it’s all thanks to TeaEqualsBliss!

This is a ‘green’ Oolong, but it has a roasty-toasty flavor to it. There is a light vegetative note. It has a fresh taste, there are floral notes and a faint fruit note as well.

It’s really delicious!

Yummmm! What a white tea should be :-)

Yum! I have been wanting to try these for a while now and thanks to teaequalsbliss I finally got to try some! Thank you! I used 1tsp per 8oz of steaming water and steeped for about 3mins. This brewed and mellow greenish/yellow tea and tasted beautiful! A light silky, vegetal taste that tasted very pure and clean. This is some very high quality white tea, the pearls almost look like little fuzz balls due to all of the white hairs on the leaves that are nicely rolled. I’m going to have to definitely buy a tin of these!

As a general rule, I don’t find genmaicha all that impressive. Dunno why, it just doesn’t hit all the right buttons with me. The exception to this is Samovar’s Ryokucha, which yeah, I kind of adore (and am out of right now, which is really horrible). So I wasn’t expecting to get into this gemaicha. But apparently I was wrong. This is actually very tasty and makes me think of my much loved Ryokucha, particularly because it has a similarly milky flavor. This one is a little thinner feeling (no matcha in this one) and perhaps has a bit more toasted rice flavor but it is still remarkably smooth and the flavors mesh really delightfully. Quite a nummy cup! Thanks TeaEqualsBliss!
5.2g/10oz

This one is OK.
Not really my fave from Imperial Tea Garden but still pretty good.

It tastes like a toasted or fired type veggie with veggies and a little fruity hints throughout

This smells like fresh cotton right out of the dryer

It’s light brown in color and the taste is very gentle and soothing. Something I needed after my last tea tasting experience…lol…

This is quite mellow but nice

Has a slight musty smell.
1st sip I wasn’t so sure about…
thereafter -
it does get better.
much flavor but a musty woodsy type
as it cools it isn’t as woodsy maybe more floral or earthy…even

It’s ‘ok’

This tea is sooooo neat! The leaves are tightly spiraled and slightly fuzzy! Post infusion the leaves are much different in every way – color, texture, size, etc. FUN! And it’s a tasty tea! I would say a very powerful white tea…maybe somewhere between a green and a white. NICE. In the middle of the sip I can relate to the jam-like mention in the description!

This is a FUN tea!

Smells like twigs
Tastes like roasted nuts of some sort.
If you aren’t sure about Kukicha’s – give this one a whirl…it’s pretty good.

Pretty tasty. Fairly mellow. Very relaxing. It’s a bit grassy but also sweet. Has a perfumy type ending on the sip. No aftertaste, tho!

Intense POP CORN Scent…even more than most other Genmaicha’s I have tried.

Medium yellow in color post-infusion.
Very much like toasted rice…toasty, ricey, popcorn-eque, not as much green tea flavor as some but more flavor for the ‘popped’ flavors than others.

quite good.

Intense aroma but mild taste. The black tea is certainly more prominent than the earl grey flavoring. This is a medium brown in color. It tastes alright…not the best but not the worst.